The invention relates to a method and system for communication interaction between a human being, especially a vehicle driver, and a plurality of integrated non-integrated applications like e.g. native vehicle applications and/or aftermarket applications and/or nomad applications. Especially, the invention relates to such a method and system for managing the communication interaction by means of an interaction manager.
Today, there is a strong trend towards the integration of vehicle built-in applications and functions in such a way that they can share at least partly the same hardware and/or software components like e.g. sensors and displays. Such applications especially include Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and In-Vehicle Information Systems However, aftermarket add-on applications which are added after shipping of the vehicle, are still very common. Moreover, many drivers use portable computing devices like PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), mobile phones and other stand-alone applications (nomad systems) in the vehicle as well. All these applications and other technologies have great potential for enhancing road safety, as well as enhancing the quality of life and work.
However, the proliferation of such in-vehicle applications increases the risk for conflicts, e.g. when applications are activated and messages (e.g. incoming diagnostic messages or SMS [Short Message Service] messages) are presented simultaneously. This may reduce comfort and impose safety-critical levels of workload and distraction on the driver. Moreover, interference between different ADAS and IVIS may lead to sub-optimal performance, reduced user acceptance and, hence, reduced safety benefits of these applications.
In “Generic Intelligent Driver Support”, edited by John A. Michon, 1993 (Taylor & Francis, London, Washington), the GIDS (Generic Intelligent Driver Support) project is disclosed which had two main focuses: (1) to develop generic driver support functions and (2) to develop techniques for integrating these functions and making them adaptive to the driver and the driving environment. A key feature of the GIDS project was information management. The core of such functions developed in GIDS was:
1. Prioritization which prevents conflicting information from different support and service functions to be presented simultaneously, by presenting information sequentially and according to priority; and
2. Scheduling which prevents conflicts between system-initiated information and demands imposed by the driving task by re-scheduling (e.g. postponing) information of low or medium priority initiated during demanding driving situations.
These functions have been realised by a data flow protocol according to which each application presenting information to the driver sent a “request” to a unit called the “dialogue controller”, wherein the request contained among other features the following attributes:
Application identification (ID), message priority (on a 6-point scale), preferred time of presentation, content of message and specifications for the integrated HMI (Human Machine Interface), order within task cluster and imposed workload per resource (i.e. how much workload the message will impose on the driver in each of the sensory modalities).
Based on an estimation of the current workload, provided by a workload estimator, the dialogue controller decides when and how the message is presented to the driver. The dialogue controller is also responsible for actually presenting the information to the driver through an integrated HMI. Thus, the basic GIDS information management function is to filter information presented through the common HMI of the dialogue controller. However, no method is disclosed for enabling the integrated management of stand-alone systems which have their own HMIs (e.g. aftermarket and nomad systems).
U.S. patent application US 2002/0120374A1 discloses a system and method for driver performance improvement by which operator activity data relating to activities of the operator within an interior portion of the vehicle are monitored and vehicle operating data, vehicle environment data and operator condition data are received. An operator cognitive load is estimated and on the basis of these data vehicle information is prioritized for selectively informing the operator of vehicle information.
Furthermore, the system may also operate with wireless communication devices like mobile phones, PDAs and pagers and prioritize incoming calls, e-mails and text and data messages of such devices, respectively.
However, integrating these so called stand-alone devices into this system. requires additional hardware, especially a sensor fusion module and appropriate processing capability at or within the related device. This is considered to be disadvantageous and expensive.
It is desirable to provide a method and system for communication and/or interaction between a vehicle driver and a plurality of integrated non-integrated applications as mentioned above by which this communication and/or interaction is conducted or managed in such a way that risks and impairments for the safety and comfort of the driver are reduced considerably and workload and distraction of the driver by such communication and/or interaction is reduced considerably as well.
It is desirable to provide such a method and system by which aftermarket and non-integrated applications like stand-alone or mobile applications and nomad applications can be integrated and used, respectively, as a part of the whole information management architecture of the system.
It is desirable to provide such a method and system by which non-integrated applications and nomad applications which have their own human machine interface can be integrated and used, respectively, as a part of the whole information management architecture of the system as well.
It is desirable to provide such a method and system which offer an open system architecture especially for integrating aftermarket and nomad applications according to the need of the driver and in such a way that workload and distraction of the driver by these applications are reduced considerably.
In the present application, the term “application” shall cover any systems, components, functions, devices, units and modules which are able after their activation to communicate and/or interact one-and/or bidirectional with the vehicle driver, for example by initiating, sending and/or receiving actions to/from the driver, sending and/or receiving messages to/from the driver etc. Such an application can also be very sophisticated like e.g. a collision avoidance system.
Further, a driver/vehicle environment (DVE) state is a state which is evaluated on the basis of output signals of one or a plurality of sensors for detecting parameters of the driver and/or the vehicle and/or the environment.
The inventive methods and systems are able to handle integrated or “native” applications which are implemented in the vehicle before shipping, as well as non-integrated applications like aftermarket applications that are added later and those applications which are brought into the vehicle temporarily or permanently by the driver or a passenger (nomad applications).
The centralized management of the communication interaction between a driver and the applications by means of an interaction manager opens a great potential for a high degree of modularity, comparatively simple system architecture and the possibility to extend the system in a simple way by additional applications which are able to send requests and receive responses according to an aspect of the present invention.
This is also due to the fact that the communication interaction itself is not changed or altered by the interaction manager (only allowed or not allowed) but is conducted solely by the related application. So the interaction manager does not need to know for which kind of communication and/or interaction each application is provided for, and further does not need to know the kind of application that sent the request.
Especially if requests and responses have a standardized format, the inventive methods and systems offer an open system architecture and the use of standardized data protocols so that they can be extended in a very flexible way with applications which are built-in later (or to nomad applications), without the need to change the interaction manager itself.
As an alternative or as a complement to the solution according to aspects of the present invention, the interaction manager can control the capability of the applications to communicate and/or interact with a vehicle driver in dependence of a DVE state and in the absence of any request from the related application.
Finally, the inventive methods, systems and applications are not limited to the communication and/or interaction with a vehicle driver but with any human being who is confronted more or less simultaneously with a plurality of signal or information sources which in case of activation have to be considered or handled in dependency of at least one certain environment state and/or other such activated signals and/or information sources and/or other conditions.